What is not simulated, what is simplified?

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

The Airbus X is intended for simpilots who find the default aircraft to simple and the high end and expensive add-on aircraft too complex. It will give you a very realistic experience in almost all flight conditions, without adding all the complexities that make modern aircraft as they are. Keep in mind that our customer is one person with a few hours of spare time and that the real aircraft is flown by two highly trained professionals who do not drink a beer shortly before take-off.

Q: No wingflex? Archhhhhh!!!!

A: The Airbus A32x aircraft got rather stiff, thick and short wings. They do not flex a lot, nothing like an MD11 or B747. In fact if you would contort your spine to see them from the cockpit in default soom factor they would move 1 or 2 pixels in moderate weather and 5 pixels in heavy weather. Now you want to loose 5 fps for that? We also do not really understand the added realism that wing flex gives. There are so many things that are far more important in graphics. Just look right when you take-off on nearly all add-on aircraft. Empty seat! Isn't that a much bigger thing then a wing tip that moves? In case you want to send us youtube videos that show the wings are as flexible as in a glider, do note that it is the camera that often moves a lot up and down, not the wing tip.

Q: How about the flight planning?

A: We wanted to stay very much to the format of the default FSX flightplan with all it's limitation because that's what our intended customer will understand and will be able to use. So it is not possible to select SIDs and STARs or airways. Of course you can still insert (and fly) them. just enter them as separate waypoints.

Q: Do you include all the vertical modes?

A: No, they are the most complex of all systems so we decided to stick to a simplified Managed mode and a fully implemented Selected mode. Even though simplified these modes actually are fully capable of flying 90% of what is actually flown in a crowded airspace where ATC determines where you can fly and how fast.

Q: How's the INS system?

A: It's okay, thank you for asking! We do not simulate the annoying wait for an INS system to align or the way it has problems after flying a holding pattern for an hour. But in flight it will have the position of the aircraft with a more or less randomized error. It's the same with the GPS of course. FSX (or any addon) does not know about GPS satellites. So what you see is what FSX knows (the exact position of the aircraft to within a few millimeters, with a randomized error. It will look as it should though.

Q: Weather and terrain on the MFDs?

A: FSX has no way of knowing where it rains on any other location but the location of the aircraft. In fact there IS no rain on any other location. So while we could add some random orange or red blobs when the weather conditions include rain they would never be able to show where the rain actually is. What you see on your weather radar would never match what you see outside or what you would see if you fly to one of the red blobs. So we dropped that. Too fake. Terrain would be possible and we'll look into it, but it would decrease fps on the VC by about 25% and that's very hard to swallow.